David Ignatius

David Ignatius

"Washington Post columnist David Ignatius has had a distinguished and wide-ranging career in the news business, serving at various times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and columnist. He has written widely for magazines and published five novels. "His twice-weekly column on global politics, economics and international affairs debuted on The Washington Post op-ed page in January 1999 and was distributed to more than 600 newspapers worldwide via the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service. He continued to write weekly after becoming executive editor of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune in September 2000. When the Post sold its interest in the IHT in January 2003, Ignatius resumed writing twice a week for the op-ed page and was syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group. His column won the 2000 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary. "As executive editor of the IHT, Ignatius traveled the world and met with leaders of countries across Europe and Asia. During his journalism career, he has covered almost every Washington beat, from the Pentagon to the CIA to Capitol Hill. His reporting and his commentary draw on his network of resources to uncover and break news. "Prior to becoming a columnist, Ignatius was the Post´s assistant managing editor in charge of business news, a position he assumed in 1993. During his tenure, the paper significantly expanded its business coverage, and the Post was cited as one of the "Best in Business" among large newspapers by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 1995 and 1996. "Ignatius served as the Post´s foreign editor from 1990 to 1992, supervising the paper´s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From 1986 to 1990, he was editor of the Post´s Outlook section, a Sunday opinion section that covers politics, economics, foreign policy and intellectual trends. "Before joining the Post in 1986, Ignatius spent 10 years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He covered the steel industry in Pittsburgh, then moved to Washington to cover the Justice Department, the CIA and the U.S. Senate. He transferred overseas to become the paper´s Middle East correspondent from 1980 to 1983, covering wars in Lebanon and Iraq. He returned to Washington in 1984 as the Journal's chief diplomatic correspondent and he received the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 1985. Before joining the Wall Street Journal, he was an editor at The Washington Monthly. "Raised in Washington, D.C., Ignatius attended St. Albans School and Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1973. He received a Frank Knox Fellowship from Harvard and studied at King´s College, Cambridge University, where he received a diploma in economics. He has published articles in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Talk Magazine and The Washington Monthly. "Ignatius has written five novels: Agents of Innocence, published in 1987 by W.W. Norton; SIRO, published in 1991 by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux; The Bank of Fear, published in 1994 by William Morrow; A Firing Offense, published in 1997 by Random House; and The Sun King, published in 1999 by Random House. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Tom Cruise and Paramount Productions bought film rights to his fourth novel, A Firing Offense. "Ignatius is married to Dr. Eve Ignatius and has three daughters."


 * Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies - US
 * Trustee, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Related Articles

 * Sandy Tolan, "Erdogan, Peres and the Soufflés of Davos", Truthdig, February 4, 2009. (Ignatius moderated the discussion.)